KALAMAZOO — The Mid-American Conference has taken a step in rewarding its top regular season basketball teams, in its continued effort to earn multiple NCAA tournament berths.

The league announced Thursday, the No. 1 and 2 seeds in both its men's and women's basketball tournaments will earn byes straight to the semifinals, with the No. 3 and 4 seeds beginning tournament play in the quarterfinals.

Teams seeded 5-12 will have to play an additional two rounds, opening with campus-site games. For the men, those will be on Monday, March 5, two days after the regular season wraps up.

Second-round games are scheduled for Wednesday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, followed by the quarterfinals on Thursday, the semis on Friday and the championship on Saturday night, March 10.

The women's tournament, from the second round on, will be on the same days as the men and also at Quicken Loans Arena. Women's campus-site first-round games, however, will be played on the previous Saturday, March 3.

With the men's tournament, this new format means a team seeded fifth or lower would have to win four games in six days, while playing five games in eight days, to reach the NCAA tournament.

Mostly, though, it assures any MAC team with legitimate aspirations of an NCAA tournament at-large bid can't be upset in the tournament's first round or quarterfinals. The perception of a semifinal loss to a quality opponent isn't as damaging.

The new format is similar to what the Horizon League adopted in 2003, following Butler's NCAA tournament snub a year earlier after a quarterfinal loss in the conference tournament — though the Horizon League now also rewards its top seed by having it host the league tournament.

"As a conference, trying to better our league, we're looking at how can we get more team into the tournament," said Western Michigan University coach Steve Hawkins, who is in favor of the changes in a league that hasn't had multiple NCAA bids since 1998. "If we can get a team in position for an at-large berth, then one of the worst things that can happen is for that team to lose in the first round (of a conference tournament).

"This rewards and protects the top two teams."

The MAC will also no longer automatically reward a top 2 seed to the division winners. According to WMU spokesperson Sean Fagan, teams will be seeded based on conference record, regardless of their place in their division — though no division champion will be seeded lower than fourth.

"This continues the efforts of our membership to challenge the status
quo," MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said in a statement, speaking of
the format which was approved by the leagues athletic directors. "The
new format will increase the importance of each regular season game and
reward teams that excel during the regular season."